A tweet from gscstalker has an update on the status of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: 2, which doesn't ease the concerns about the future of this first-person shooter sequel that first came into doubt amid concerns developer GSC Game Worlds was shutting down, saying: "despite no official continuation of Stalker 2. it looks like the ideas and spirit will live on in the team's new game – 'Survarium'" (thanks Eurogamer). An official website for Survarium (working title) has details on this, saying: "Survarium is a free2play MMOFPS game set in the near future. The game focuses on a mass- scale ecological catastrophe on Earth, the reasons behind vaguely known." That sure does sound like the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. spirit, and the - Vostok Games About Us Page explains why this would be, while also confirming that GSC Game World is closed and that development of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is "frozen":

Our company appeared in March 2012 in Kiev. Ten years earlier, when at GSC Game World we started developing the renowned S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game series and continued working on it until December 2011 when the studio was unexpectedly shut down and the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 project – frozen. We did not reach agreement with the rights owner regarding the use of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. brand, that’s why we made the decision to move forward as an independent studio with a new project. That day became our starting point for Vostok Games.

Vostok Games is a new studio founded by veterans of Ukrainian game industry with multi-year experience of developing and releasing commercially successful projects. In March 2012 we reached agreement with Vostok Ventures Ltd. to back up the financing of our new game – free2play MMOFPS Survarium(working title).

ItBurn wrote on Apr 25, 2012, 14:00:While it's good that we're getting more stalker-style games, free 2 play and mmo are not good words for me. Online games can't capture the richness of a singleplayer experience... And Stalker was all about the richness of experience.

You will see a day where online catches up. The bottom line is, most people do not want to be alone;) They would rather get together with family and friends and hang out. This applies to virtual worlds as well.

Yeah... that's why the Washington Post (or NYT, I don't remember which) published an article yesterday by an MIT psychology professor lamenting the growth of "internet" families... families that sit around in the same room, silently, and just communicate or play games on their phones/IPads/etc. These people obviously crave human contact and interaction...

Sad to see STALKER 2 won't be seeing the light of day (or if it ever does, it won't be the same without these guys making it), but I'm cautiously optimistic about a STALKER-style MMO. As much as I appreciate the single-player aspect of the franchise, there's no denying that the gameplay would translate very well to an online environment. Basically you could have real, live Stalkers running around on their own adventure that either help or hinder you, along with plenty of NPCs that stick to their assigned tasks. I just hope they can pull it off in less than 2 years, though from their dev diary it sounds like they'd be releasing it in segments, adding new areas every so often.

ItBurn wrote on Apr 25, 2012, 14:00:While it's good that we're getting more stalker-style games, free 2 play and mmo are not good words for me. Online games can't capture the richness of a singleplayer experience... And Stalker was all about the richness of experience.

You will see a day where online catches up. The bottom line is, most people do not want to be alone;) They would rather get together with family and friends and hang out. This applies to virtual worlds as well.

AnointedSword wrote on Apr 25, 2012, 14:24:You will see a day where online catches up. The bottom line is, most people do not want to be alone;) They would rather get together with family and friends and hang out. This applies to virtual worlds as well.

What the hell are you talking about? What does being alone have to do with playing a single player game?

Most people want to play good games. The reason so many people are drawn to multiplayer games now, is in part, because making a decent single player game seems to be an artform that not many have mastered anymore.

I sometimes want to play multiplayer games(DotA 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter Strike). I sometimes want to play single player games(Portal, Skyrim, X3, The Witcher 2). I might even sometimes want to play the multiplayer aspect of games with both single and multiplayer(Sanctum, Serious Sam 3, Starcraft).

What I don't need is every single game to come out as an 'MMO' with mandatory online and a gameworld that I have to share with people I don't give a rat's ass about. Oh and let's tack an item shop onto that so I can buy pretty outfits and 'I win' weapons and armor.

The height of stupid is telling people what they enjoy. Apparently I'm eccentric because I don't need to define my enjoyment of a game by the fact that I played it with friends or family. What a bunch of crap.

Given how poorly the engine handled singleplayer I am highly sceptical that they'll be able to pull off a MMOFPS. And it's going to be competing against games like Warface, which are polished and built on tried-and-tested engines. That, and the name "Suvarium" is terrible - even for a working title.

ItBurn wrote on Apr 25, 2012, 14:00:While it's good that we're getting more stalker-style games, free 2 play and mmo are not good words for me. Online games can't capture the richness of a singleplayer experience... And Stalker was all about the richness of experience.

You will see a day where online catches up. The bottom line is, most people do not want to be alone;) They would rather get together with family and friends and hang out. This applies to virtual worlds as well.

While it's good that we're getting more stalker-style games, free 2 play and mmo are not good words for me. Online games can't capture the richness of a singleplayer experience... And Stalker was all about the richness of experience.